MINUTES OF THE KINGSTONE ANNUAL OPEN PARISH MEETING HELD ON 28 MAY 2014 AT THE VILLAGE HALL

PRESENT

Parish Councillors:

Mr H.Cleveland, Mr Rowan, Mrs Rowan, Mr J Greenly, Mr B Lloyd, Mrs Fleming, Mr P Wright, Mr R Piotrowski, Mr A Price and Mrs S Walker.

IN ATTENDANCE

Mrs R Craine (Clerk), Cllr. J Knipe and 2 parishioners.

The Annual Parish Meeting of Kingstone was formally opened and closed. No residents raised any issues and no matters for discussion were notified to the clerk.

Mr H Cleveland resigned from the Parish council and read out the attached report. All Parish Councillors extended their thanks to Harry for all his hard work.

In last years report I wondered if we could have back a convivial, family friendly free-house pub in the village not a pub-co owned one, the planning appeal having failed. This was not to be. The appeal on the Whitehouse Drive development was granted. The Archihaus development was given approval by Herefordshire Council despite the overwhelming opposition by residents. Localism is alive and well but only if you agree with Government policy. The proposed 3 metre emergency access road through the sports field has still to be resolved. None of the developers appear to be in any hurry to start!

The Footpaths and Lengthsman Schemes have continued to run successfully. Again a thank you to Jimmy for continuing to administer the Lengthsman scheme. Rachel’s report will show the final expenditure figures. Paul Wright has been awarded the Lengthsman contract to take over from Robert Layton Morris who retired at the end of March.

Steve Ansty left the Council late last year and has been replaced by Roman Piotrowski. Half the Council are now relative new comers but I feel we now have the most talented and strongest Council since I came on 14 years ago.

As ever my thanks to Rachel for her excellent work as our Parish Clerk and to all Councillors for their input and support. A special thank you must also go to our CountyCouncillor, Jim Knipe, for his support. I’m sure you are all aware of the effort he has made on fighting these planning applications and the price paid for doing so.

Finally I wish you all the very best for the future. I’m sure you will manage admirably. Looking back to when I joined the Council in July 2000 my special thanks to Jimmy (sole survivor of my administration) for putting up with me all these years. Like most people retiring I won’t miss the job but I sure will miss the people.

Harry Cleveland 28th May 2014